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“I’m not setting my expectations too high so that way if I fail I won’t be so disappointed.”

SERIOUSLY?!

I know you have heard this before, and you have likely thought it, whether you have said it out loud or not. Now you know what MY reaction will be if I do happen to hear it. 😉

But c’mon. What happens when you go into a situation thinking it’s going to go poorly? You have already set yourself up for performing less than your best. The power of the mind, people. Perhaps saying something like this takes the pressure off, it justifies your feelings of fear or anxiety, or you feel that by approaching the situation this way, you save face IF you do not do as well as you wanted to.

Rubbish. Here’s what I see happening. You go into something with less than fantastic intentions. Rather than, “I’m going to kick a**” you are saying, “We’ll see how it goes…” BOOORRRIIINNNGG and less than inspiring.

Moving on…. you come out of it, and you didn’t perform well. So now you’re saying, “Well, I knew it would go down that way,” but inside you’re likely feeling discouraged, upset, disappointed, and less than thrilled. (If it wasn’t important to you, why did you do it in the first place?)

But then what? Do you take the time, assess what you could have done better, identify what you did well so you can capitalize on those areas? Likely not. You were going to perform in mediocre fashion anyway, so what’s the point in taking the time to analyze how it went down?

Now, had you gone into it with gusto, with excitement, energy, and an attitude of success, I think the outcome would look a bit different. Could your feelings of disappointment be more intense? Absolutely! But could that intensity drive you to push harder, look for your strengths, improve upon your weaknesses, and galvanize your spirit? HECK YES!

Raise the bar, guys. Stop living in the middle to “save yourself the disappointment”. Use that emotion to invigorate your spirit and discover your true potential. Emotions are signals. Listen to them. They may tell you that your head is in the wrong place, and it’s your job then to tease out where that place is. Then you get to jump in the car and map out your course for the place you WANT and know you NEED to be in.